Our present invention relates to a button fastener, especially for brassieres and, more particularly, to a fastener which can be used to attach a strap or the like to a garment, such as a brassiere, utilizing a press-fit between male and female members.
While a variety of fasteners have been used heretofore to attach, for example, the strap of a brassiere to the body thereof, there is a continuing desire for improvement in this field. Hook and loop fasteners, for example, have aesthetic disadvantages, while eyelet type fasteners may require stitching of fabric pieces or fastener parts to the garment. Most fasteners provided heretofore have been relatively complex, time-consuming in application to the garment or unsatisfactory from the point of view of laundering and manipulation by the user.
In some cases problems have been encountered with a particular fabric material to which the fastener is to be attached. For example, for some materials like those of jeans and jackets, the fastener can be applied easily. With, however, certain knitted or woven materials which are softer, more flexible and more delicate, like brassieres, lingerie, swim wear and baby wear fabrics, earlier fastener types cannot be used as effectively.
It is, therefore, the principal object of the present invention to provide a garment fastener, especially between a strap and the body of a brassiere, which is easily applied to the fabric, can be connected and disconnected easily, is capable of withstanding repeated laundering and poses no danger to other delicate garments in the wash, and is aesthetic in appearance in all stages.
Another object of the invention is to provide a fastener which can have a part attached to a garment body, for example, that of a strapless brassiere, so that another part, for example, a strap, can be applied as need arises.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a fastener for the purposes described which can be used as a decorative element on the garment.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a garment with improved aesthetic and improved reliability and ease of functioning of these garment fasteners.
Yet a further object is to eliminate drawbacks of earlier garment fasteners, especially for brassieres.
It is an object of this invention, as well, to provide an improved fastener for a reversible garment, especially an undergarment and most particularly a brassiere, which is compatible with the difference in colors of the sides of that garment.
A related object is to provide an improved reversible garment which can be fabricated economically and more efficiently than earlier garments, utilizing a button-type fastener.
These objects and others which will become apparent hereinafter are attained, in accordance with the invention, in a fastener for two parts of a garment, e.g. a strap and a brassiere body, and having respective fastener parts attached to the two parts of the garment to be joined together. According to the invention, one of these parts is a ring which is formed with an opening and is composed of two sections, one on each side of the fabric piece carrying the fastener part and welded together through the fabric so that the fabric is exposed through the opening. The other fastener part forms a press button with the first fastener part and preferably has a formation complementary to the formation on either of the two sections of the ring and can be press-fitted onto it. The formations are respectively a male formation and a female formation. The female formation can be an inwardly-extending overhang surrounding the opening in the respective ring section while the male formation can be a generally cylindrical collar boss or rib having an outward bulge engageable behind the overhang.
The outer configuration of the male member can correspond to that of the female members so that when the two parts of the fastener are joined together, they appear identical from front and back. The male member can engage in the female fastener part at either one of its sections, i.e. on one side of the fabric or the other and in that case the fastener may be reversible and the garment carrying the fastener can be reversible. The fact that the fabric of the garment is exposed through the openings in both the male and female fastener parts has been found to contribute to the overall aesthetics of the fastener which has a press button configuration and in which the female fastener part can form a decorative element for the body of the garment even if no strap is applied.
According to a feature of the invention, one of the sections of the female part of the fastener can be provided with a plurality of spaced-apart pins which are pointed and can pierce the fabric when the two parts of the female fastener are pressed together and joined by welding to one another and to the fabric. The other sections of the female fastener parts may have a plurality of recesses or depressions dimensioned to receive the projections.
The male fastener part can be connected to the strap by a pair of shield-shaped plates which straddle the strap and are welded thereto. It has been found to be advantageous to form the male fastener part with a laterally-projecting lug which is connected to the aforementioned plates. The lug can be provided with pins engageable in holes in the plates or holes can be provided in the lug through which pins of one or both of the plates can extend. For aesthetic reasons, it is desirable to have the pins connecting the plates together and/or to the lug project from a side of one of the plates. In this case, one of the plates can be provided with the pins which pass through holes in the lug and in the other plate.
The invention also encompasses the garment provided with such a fastener, especially a brassiere. In that case, a body of the brassiere is provided with the female fastener and the male fastener can engage in this female fastener from either side and can be carried by the strap.
The fastener of the invention has been found to be particularly effective with reversible garments, especially reversible undergarments such as brassieres. A brassiere, according to the invention, can be fabricated from molded cups entirely by a welding process, i.e. without stitched seams, and such that the fabrics on the opposite sides of the brassiere have different colors so that either of these colors or fabrics may be the outer fabric and the other the inner fabric of the brassiere, depending upon how the garment is reversed. According to the present invention, one of the annuluses of the female fastener may be of one color while the other annulus is of another color to match the fabric or side of the brassiere to which the respective annulus is welded.
Since the male fastener part is attached to the strap by welding and the female fastener part has its annuluses or rings also attached by welding, not only is the garment itself fabricated by a welding process free from stitching but the reversible fastener can be applied also entirely by welding operations. Naturally, the opposite sides of the male fastener part may be of different colors corresponding to the colors of the annuluses or rings of the female fastener part so that the male fastener part, upon reversible of the garment, need only be turned over to provide a match between the visible portions of the two fastener parts.
According to another aspect of the invention, a garment fastener can comprise a first fastener part secured to the fabric of a garment and comprising a pair of thermoplastic synthetic resin fastener sections on opposite sides of the fabric and a second fastener part having a pair of fastener sections on opposite sides of another portion of fabric or a member which is attached to the fabric, and complementary male and female formations on one of the fastener sections of the first fastener part and one of the fastener sections of the second fastener part respectively for releasable engagement by press-button action to engage the second fastener part with the first fastener part.
In this aspect of the invention, the two fastener sections on opposite sides of the fabric can be ultrasonically welded through the respective layer of the fabric and at least one of those fastener sections can be provided with a multiplicity of prongs extending toward the other fastener section of the respective fastener part. The prongs of the one fastener section can be ultrasonically welded to the other section. Preferably, especially for soft material like baby wear and delicate lingerie fabrics, both sections of each fastener part have multiplicities of prongs reaching toward a welded part of the other section. While, in the past, prongs which are intended to penetrate a fabric have been practically conical from their base at the section from which they protrude, according to the present invention, the prongs are columnar and have a shank portion which is cylindrical or only slightly conical or tapered but have pointed tips.
In a typical configuration, six prongs can be provided on each of the sections and these prongs can be angularly equispaced and arrayed along a circle.
According to a feature of the invention, one of the sections of each part is basically flat and that section can be provided with the male formation or the female formation. The other section of the respective part may be slightly convex and rounded along its surface turned away from the other part. With this configuration, especially thin fasteners can be provided.
One or the other or both of the convex surfaces can be embossed with a decorative pattern and it is possible to provide noncircular shapes for the fasteners. For example, they may be of triangular, square or even flower shape.
According to another feature of the invention, one of the sections can be a prong section which is applied directly to a strap by an ultrasonic welding operation without a second section joined thereto.